The Great Dictator

Even though it is in the clip above, I feel like posting the text to Charlie Chaplin’s famous speech from The Great Dictator as it says more than anything I could ever write about it.  I will share some plot down though and then simply the parts of the speech that I think say it all.

The story is a satire on Nazi, Germany and  centers on Jewish barber (played by Chaplin), with amnesia who wanders into a war town (to return to his barber shop) and gets mistaken for the dictator of the day.  When he finally is asked to speak on stage, it is pure magic:

I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible; Jew, Gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone, and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge as made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

Three cheers! I get all teary eyed just reading the words.

Watch this film to see how it pushed the envelope and then takepart with the ACLU to make sure all - Jew, Gentile, black man, white - are treated equal!

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